A Ruby Necklace - June 2019
Program notes by Sanford Dole
With this weekend’s concerts we are observing the conclusion of Bay Choral Guild’s 40th season. As rubies are the traditional gift for one’s 40th anniversary, we have strung together sparkling gems of the unaccompanied choral repertoire to encircle you in beauty. To make this a fitting celebration, I thought it would be fun to present highlights from our first 40 years on the first half and introduce new treasures on the second, as we look forward to the radiant future of the ensemble and the art of choral music.
Jewels from our collection (favorites from the past)
For the third time in my 19 years as artistic director we are performing one of my favorite motets from the Italian Renaissance, Jubilate Deo, by Giovanni Gabrieli. Famous for his years as the music director at St. Mark’s in Venice, Gabrieli is considered the pinnacle of the late-Renaissance Venetian polychoral style. He probably studied first with his uncle, composer Andrea Gabrieli, before going to Munich to study with Orlando di Lasso, who was a significant influence in the development of his musical style. Years later, Heinrich Schütz and others traveled to Venice to absorb this style and bring it back to northern Germany, ultimately setting the stage for J. S. Bach. When BCG toured Italy in 2003 we sang Jubilate Deo during a service at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, the space for which Gabrieli composed the piece. It sets the opening verses of Psalm 99 for 8-part choir, and is an excellent example of the compositional devices common in the era, such as imitative counterpoint, antiphonal effects, and contrasting textures. I love how the grand coda alternates a lilting triple meter with the persistent march of the standard 2/2 meter as it works its way to the final exuberant cadence.
Dating back to our founding, when we were known as Baroque Choral Guild, and throughout our four decades, the music of J. S. Bach has played an important part in our musical repertoire. Perhaps you were able to attend our performance of Bach’s St. John Passion last season. Over the years I’ve made a point of programming his six motets, and this year it seemed appropriate to revisit the longest and most musically complex of these, Jesu meine Freude. All of the motets were written during Bach’s years in Leipzig, 1723–1728, for special occasions. It has been speculated that this one was composed for the funeral of the wife of the Leipzig postmaster. Based on a German hymn from the 1650s—words by Johann Franck and melody by Johann Crüger—Bach has expanded the form by interspersing verses from Paul’s Letter to the Romans between the six stanzas of the hymn, creating an 11-movement arc. The text from Paul, which speaks of Christ freeing mankind from sin and death, combined with the hymn that praises Jesus as our protector, makes for a fitting offering at a funeral. Musically this work is another example of the man’s genius. It is set for five-part choir, a rare occurrence for Bach. The outer stanzas have identical harmonization of the chorale melody, while the inner four stanzas are set in various other ways, sometimes with the tune in the soprano with various harmonizations underneath, and more freely at other times in “quasi aria” style. The interpolated movements display his melodic and polyphonic skills to great effect.
Another masterwork of the choral repertoire, often performed by choirs around the world, is the All-Night Vigil, the more famous of two Russian Orthodox liturgical settings by Sergei Rachmaninoff, dating from 1915. Here we are excerpting the exquisite Ave Maria movement, translated in our score as “Rejoice, O Virgin.” But we will sing it in the original Church Slavonic--Bogoroditse Dyevo.
Composed for Bay Choral Guild in 2007, Invitation to a Voyage is my setting of the great poem by Charles Baudelaire as translated by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Setting it for six voice parts allowed me to create lush textures appropriate for the images conjured up in this paean to love and relationships. We performed a slightly revised version of the piece in 2014, and for these concerts I have again made revisions, this time to the refrain sections, “There, restraint and order bless luxury and voluptuousness.” This is the one contemporary piece included in the section of the program that revisits old favorites. In the second part of the show, which introduces new-to-us music, there will be one piece from the Romantic era appearing among modern works.
To conclude this “musical nostalgia” portion of the program we present the music of Johannes Brahms. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz is not only exceedingly beautiful but is also a compositional tour de force. This setting of Psalm 51 in three movements displays a virtuosic level of counterpoint throughout. The first movement sets up a canon between the soprano and bass parts, the latter in augmentation, so that the sopranos sing the melody twice in the time that the basses sing it once. The second movement introduces a highly chromatic fugue subject in the tenor line. As the other voices enter, the emotional pleading of the text “cast me not away from Thy presence” becomes magnified. As the movement progresses, various fugal techniques, such as inversion and stretto, are employed to great effect. The third movement once again presents a canon. Starting with a three-part texture in the men’s voices, the basses sing in canon with the tenors a seventh below while the baritones fill in the harmonies. After the women echo this phrase, the men return with another canon, again a seventh apart, which gives way to a joyful fugue.
New baubles in our musical jewelry chest
Looking forward to the next 40 years in the life of Bay Choral Guild, we are introducing new composers and/or new works into our catalog. Born in 1963, Swiss composer Ivo Antognini has become well-known on the choral music scene since he became composer in residence for a children’s choir in 2006. His background as a jazz pianist is clearly evident in the upbeat style of Canticum Novum, which includes close harmonies and rhythmic vitality and is simply a lot of fun to sing. The motet begins with a motive in the soprano and bass parts followed by a series of chords in the other voices. These chords repeat seven consecutive times (like a mantra) and represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in Christianity: wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Dale Trumbore is a somewhat new voice on the scene, one of the many talented women composers emerging in the 21st century. Based in Los Angeles, she is currently the composer in residence for Choral Chameleon in New York, and has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and The Singers—Minnesota Choral Artists, among others. Often setting texts by women, Trumbore writes:
Jewels from our collection (favorites from the past)
For the third time in my 19 years as artistic director we are performing one of my favorite motets from the Italian Renaissance, Jubilate Deo, by Giovanni Gabrieli. Famous for his years as the music director at St. Mark’s in Venice, Gabrieli is considered the pinnacle of the late-Renaissance Venetian polychoral style. He probably studied first with his uncle, composer Andrea Gabrieli, before going to Munich to study with Orlando di Lasso, who was a significant influence in the development of his musical style. Years later, Heinrich Schütz and others traveled to Venice to absorb this style and bring it back to northern Germany, ultimately setting the stage for J. S. Bach. When BCG toured Italy in 2003 we sang Jubilate Deo during a service at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, the space for which Gabrieli composed the piece. It sets the opening verses of Psalm 99 for 8-part choir, and is an excellent example of the compositional devices common in the era, such as imitative counterpoint, antiphonal effects, and contrasting textures. I love how the grand coda alternates a lilting triple meter with the persistent march of the standard 2/2 meter as it works its way to the final exuberant cadence.
Dating back to our founding, when we were known as Baroque Choral Guild, and throughout our four decades, the music of J. S. Bach has played an important part in our musical repertoire. Perhaps you were able to attend our performance of Bach’s St. John Passion last season. Over the years I’ve made a point of programming his six motets, and this year it seemed appropriate to revisit the longest and most musically complex of these, Jesu meine Freude. All of the motets were written during Bach’s years in Leipzig, 1723–1728, for special occasions. It has been speculated that this one was composed for the funeral of the wife of the Leipzig postmaster. Based on a German hymn from the 1650s—words by Johann Franck and melody by Johann Crüger—Bach has expanded the form by interspersing verses from Paul’s Letter to the Romans between the six stanzas of the hymn, creating an 11-movement arc. The text from Paul, which speaks of Christ freeing mankind from sin and death, combined with the hymn that praises Jesus as our protector, makes for a fitting offering at a funeral. Musically this work is another example of the man’s genius. It is set for five-part choir, a rare occurrence for Bach. The outer stanzas have identical harmonization of the chorale melody, while the inner four stanzas are set in various other ways, sometimes with the tune in the soprano with various harmonizations underneath, and more freely at other times in “quasi aria” style. The interpolated movements display his melodic and polyphonic skills to great effect.
Another masterwork of the choral repertoire, often performed by choirs around the world, is the All-Night Vigil, the more famous of two Russian Orthodox liturgical settings by Sergei Rachmaninoff, dating from 1915. Here we are excerpting the exquisite Ave Maria movement, translated in our score as “Rejoice, O Virgin.” But we will sing it in the original Church Slavonic--Bogoroditse Dyevo.
Composed for Bay Choral Guild in 2007, Invitation to a Voyage is my setting of the great poem by Charles Baudelaire as translated by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Setting it for six voice parts allowed me to create lush textures appropriate for the images conjured up in this paean to love and relationships. We performed a slightly revised version of the piece in 2014, and for these concerts I have again made revisions, this time to the refrain sections, “There, restraint and order bless luxury and voluptuousness.” This is the one contemporary piece included in the section of the program that revisits old favorites. In the second part of the show, which introduces new-to-us music, there will be one piece from the Romantic era appearing among modern works.
To conclude this “musical nostalgia” portion of the program we present the music of Johannes Brahms. Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz is not only exceedingly beautiful but is also a compositional tour de force. This setting of Psalm 51 in three movements displays a virtuosic level of counterpoint throughout. The first movement sets up a canon between the soprano and bass parts, the latter in augmentation, so that the sopranos sing the melody twice in the time that the basses sing it once. The second movement introduces a highly chromatic fugue subject in the tenor line. As the other voices enter, the emotional pleading of the text “cast me not away from Thy presence” becomes magnified. As the movement progresses, various fugal techniques, such as inversion and stretto, are employed to great effect. The third movement once again presents a canon. Starting with a three-part texture in the men’s voices, the basses sing in canon with the tenors a seventh below while the baritones fill in the harmonies. After the women echo this phrase, the men return with another canon, again a seventh apart, which gives way to a joyful fugue.
New baubles in our musical jewelry chest
Looking forward to the next 40 years in the life of Bay Choral Guild, we are introducing new composers and/or new works into our catalog. Born in 1963, Swiss composer Ivo Antognini has become well-known on the choral music scene since he became composer in residence for a children’s choir in 2006. His background as a jazz pianist is clearly evident in the upbeat style of Canticum Novum, which includes close harmonies and rhythmic vitality and is simply a lot of fun to sing. The motet begins with a motive in the soprano and bass parts followed by a series of chords in the other voices. These chords repeat seven consecutive times (like a mantra) and represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit in Christianity: wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.
Dale Trumbore is a somewhat new voice on the scene, one of the many talented women composers emerging in the 21st century. Based in Los Angeles, she is currently the composer in residence for Choral Chameleon in New York, and has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and The Singers—Minnesota Choral Artists, among others. Often setting texts by women, Trumbore writes:
Spiritus Mundi was composed as a modern “reflection” of Orlando de Lassus’ motet Timor et Tremor. In searching for a contemporary text that could pair with Timor et Tremor, I was struck by Amy Fleury’s Spiritus Mundi. Fleury’s poem is secular but still spiritual, reflecting gratitude for the fruits of the earth in a language both pastoral and almost biblical. “All flesh is grass” evokes Peter 1:24, and at least to my ear, the final sentence of Spiritus Mundi (“In sympathy, we shall shiver and bend…”) parallels the opening line of Timor et Tremor (“Fear and trembling came over me…”). Though Timor et Tremor is predominantly made up of triads in root position, they are masterfully constructed, in a way that still sounds striking, even surprising, to a modern listener. I wanted to capture that blend of familiar and the unexpected in Spiritus Mundi, which employs the same richly-voiced triads.
Hailing from Vilnius, Lithuania, Giedrius Svilainis directs several choirs in his hometown and is artistic leader of the State Song and Dance Ensemble “Lietuva.” The most important part of his oeuvre is sacred choral works, favored by many choirs from Lithuania and abroad. Educated as a choirmaster and composer, the 47-year-old Svilainis writes expressive, colorful, and effective works, often blending serious and popular music idioms. Vox populi opens with a fanfare-like passage in B flat major. The basses then introduce a marcato ostinato, followed by the tenors with a rhythmically contrasting theme. The women enter together with syncopated rhythms, then all voices unite at the text ubi concordia (where there is unity).
Residing in Nashville, Tennessee, and still only 33 years old, Daniel Elder works as a full-time composer. He has won recognition from The American Prize, and is published internationally by Carus Verlag, Edition Peters, Hal Leonard, and many others. A sage poet as well as a very thoughtful composer, Elder writes:
Residing in Nashville, Tennessee, and still only 33 years old, Daniel Elder works as a full-time composer. He has won recognition from The American Prize, and is published internationally by Carus Verlag, Edition Peters, Hal Leonard, and many others. A sage poet as well as a very thoughtful composer, Elder writes:
The Heart’s Reflection (Latin: Cordis speculum) is a setting of Proverbs 29:19. The final product is the result of two translations by me, one from an English version into Latin (with which the music was composed), and one that translated my Latin version back into English, this time attempting to match the flow and symmetry of the Latin. “The Heart’s Reflection” acts as a musical fantasia in its free-flowing form. As each word is presented, musical ideas transport the listener to a unique emotion associated with each part of this profound proverb. Through the coloring of each thought, we are taken on a journey of love, wonder, and spirituality associated with the bonds we share with one another.”
Currently based in Bloomington, Indiana, where he is on the conducting faculty at Indiana University, Dominic DiOrio is a rising star in American music. Hailed for a keenly intelligent, evocative style, which shows “a tour de force of inventive thinking and unique colour” (Gramophone), DiOrio won the American Prize in Composition in 2014, with the judges praising “his depth of vision, mastery of compositional technique, and unique style.” A spritely whirlwind of a piece, We Dance! was conceived on short notice to be the program closer for a friend’s concert at Lincoln Center. DiOrio created the text together with that conductor friend, Janet Galván, during a phone conversation, and three days later he completed this one-and-a-half minute expression of joy and enthusiasm, which suited her program perfectly.
The new-to-us composition from an earlier era is the sublime motet Abendlied by Josef Rheinberger. Growing up in Lichtenstein, Rheinberger was somewhat of a child prodigy and began serving as the organist at his local parish church at the age of seven. His first composition was performed the following year, and Abendlied was composed in 1855 when he was 15. He later became a distinguished professor of piano and composition at the Munich Conservatorium. A prolific composer, whose output includes 12 masses, a Requiem, and a Stabat Mater, as well as several operas, symphonies, and chamber music, he may be best known today for his organ music. Abendlied is part of a set of three sacred songs and sets a verse from Luke 24, which describes the Road to Emmaus appearance of Jesus after his resurrection. It is considered his best-known sacred composition.
Mark Templeton is an American composer, conductor, and countertenor. He teaches at the West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland, the oldest boarding school in the country. I met him several years ago at a convention of the American Choral Directors Association, when we were representing a cohort of self-published composers. I like his style and have performed his works several times. His arrangement Swingin’ Down to the River for six-part choir provides a rollicking conclusion to the show. Templeton writes this about the origin of the tune:
The new-to-us composition from an earlier era is the sublime motet Abendlied by Josef Rheinberger. Growing up in Lichtenstein, Rheinberger was somewhat of a child prodigy and began serving as the organist at his local parish church at the age of seven. His first composition was performed the following year, and Abendlied was composed in 1855 when he was 15. He later became a distinguished professor of piano and composition at the Munich Conservatorium. A prolific composer, whose output includes 12 masses, a Requiem, and a Stabat Mater, as well as several operas, symphonies, and chamber music, he may be best known today for his organ music. Abendlied is part of a set of three sacred songs and sets a verse from Luke 24, which describes the Road to Emmaus appearance of Jesus after his resurrection. It is considered his best-known sacred composition.
Mark Templeton is an American composer, conductor, and countertenor. He teaches at the West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland, the oldest boarding school in the country. I met him several years ago at a convention of the American Choral Directors Association, when we were representing a cohort of self-published composers. I like his style and have performed his works several times. His arrangement Swingin’ Down to the River for six-part choir provides a rollicking conclusion to the show. Templeton writes this about the origin of the tune:
Down to the River to Pray, popularized by the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), was originally titled The Good Old Way. It was first published in 1867 as part of a compilation of slave songs edited by George H. Allen. Although the song is attributed to him, it is understood that he is only the editor, not the composer. The original tune is thought to have its roots in the Native American tribes of the northwest. The tune would have undoubtedly been passed from one American culture to the other until it was first notated in Slave Songs of the US (1867). The text is thought to have its roots in the Underground Railroad. Whoever was to be freed (brother, sister, father, mother, etc.) would wear the robe and crown.
We hope you enjoy this smorgasbord of choral music from across time and geography. Our goal is to send you into the summer on a high with the same joy and energy that we’ve had as we put this program together. We wish you well in the coming months and look forward to seeing you again for the 2019-2020 season, beginning in November with our discovery program featuring the music of women composers through the ages.
